Donor's plea to submit to a little pain to save a life

Donating bone marrow hurts. That's a fact. What isn't true is that it is in any way detrimental to one's health.

Gryphon Sou, bone marrow donor, would like to emphasise that. Because sometimes there is just a one in 10,000 chance of providing a bone marrow match for a person dying of a blood disease, and getting that message out there may just increase their odds of survival.

Sou, 52, works at the airport's Superterminal 1 - the single largest cargo terminal in the world - as a senior Customs and Excise inspector, liaising with airlines on the screening of inbound cargo. When he retires in three years' time he will return to his life as an academic, teaching business administration at a university in Macau.

In 2000, Sou was told by the Hong Kong Bone Marrow Donors' Registry that his marrow was a match for a blood cancer patient. It turned out the recipient was an eight-year-old girl.

"I was admitted to the Prince of Wales Hospital one day before the operation," recalls Sou. He was anaesthetised for the two hours of surgery. "Two doctors punctured my loin muscles by using large syringes and extracted marrow via my pelvic bone," he explains.

As he recovered, Sou admits the initial pain and fatigue in his lower back and thighs was more than he had anticipated. But, with the help of painkillers, within three days he was up and walking. Within two weeks, life was back to normal. For the girl who received the marrow, her life had changed forever.

One year later, with the agreement of the registry, Sou was able to meet that little girl, who, thanks to his donation, made a full recovery. Paula Ho Man-yi is now 23 and runs a boutique with her family. She plans to go to beauty school soon to become a make-up artist.